Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert speaks to the media during a press conference at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, Monday, Oct.27, 2008.
Alberta's Finance Minister Ron Liepert, whose recent budget has been attacked for ratcheting up spending, acknowledged Wednesday that the province will have to pull in its horns.
Mr. Liepert told a business audience in Toronto that "clearly we're spending too much" and the province needs to be more efficient in the delivery of health, education and social programs.
But he defended the province's decision to run a deficit of just under $1-billion and to withdraw that money from Alberta's savings fund. The fund is a "short-term savings account" designed for this kind of situation, he said.
The fund "was always meant to shield Albertans to an extent from the harsh realities" of what was happening in the rest of the world, he said.
Mr. Liepert said Alberta recognizes that it must diversify its revenue sources beyond oil and gas.
"Riding this roller-coaster of non-renewable resource revenue is not workable going into the future," he said, and the province is looking at other ways to generate money.
However, that doesn't necessarily mean raising taxes, he said, and there will be widespread consultations before a decision is made.
Last week Mr. Liepert introduced a budget that included many spending increases. Despite the deficit, the budget projected the province will have a $5.2-billion surplus three years down the road. Mr. Liepert has said there could be a "gusher" of revenue from resources that could inflate that surplus even further.
The budget poured money into education, health care and family services without raising taxes or cutting any departmental budget. It also put more money into policing, research and innovation, while spending more on infrastructure.
Despite his rosy projections, Mr. Liepert will not be in the government to see what happens in the coming years. He has said he is leaving politics after the next provincial election, expected in the next few months.
He told his Toronto audience that Alberta's resource prosperity is being shared with other provinces. About a quarter of the jobs generated by the oil sands are outside Alberta, he said.